Les Echos bidder 'not newspaper professional'

Journalists at French financial daily Les Echos have appealed to potential buyer Bernard Arnault to quit talks over the deal.

In a letter published in today's Le Monde, they told Mr Arnault they were making the appeal because he does not know the newspaper business.

"You have been injecting massive amounts of cash in La Tribune, our competitor, a daily that we respect but has neither been able to increase its readership nor to earn any money," wrote Vincent de Feligonde, the president of the Les Echos' journalists' society - the group representing journalists' interests over editorial questions.

"The newspaper business is a profession. It's not yours. We do not want you to send Les Echos into an infernal cycle of deficits. It would guarantee for certain that we lose our independence.

"If you manage to grab Les Echos without the support of its editorial team and of a great number of its readers, how do you think you will create the climate of trust that is indispensable (for its development)? To each his profession."

Staff at the Pearson-owned Les Echos are utterly opposed to a takeover of their title by Mr Arnault's LVMH. They went on strike three times in a month in protest, while the editor-in-chief, Jacques Barraux, approached French financial firm Fimalac to make a rival bid to LVMH.

This week, Les Echos journalists appealed to Dame Marjorie Scardino, the Pearson chief executive, for a meeting so they can present their case to her.

Pearson and LVMH came to an agreement this week over the possible sale of Les Echos.

If the deal goes ahead, there would be no redundancies for three years and an 11-strong supervisory board, including three independent members and the editor-in-chief, would be set up to guarantee editorial independence.

Les Echos staff have rejected the latest proposals.

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